Methods and apparatus for forming a hole in ground and, more particularly, methods and apparatus for moving a probe attached to a loader or the like for rapidly forming a hole in the ground are shown and described.
Postholes for fence posts, flag poles or the like can be formed with the use of an auger. Digging a hole in the ground with the auger, inserting a post into the hole, and filling dirt and tamping the dirt around the post are laborious and very time consuming. Another approach is to drive posts into the ground by a pile driver, but this is typically limited to strong posts of a limited cross sectional size. Another approach utilizes a tapered bar attached to a bucket of a loader and driven into the ground to form a hole. A post is then inserted into the hole. However, such approach has deficiencies in forming the hole as it relies upon the mass of the loader, and there is considerable friction between the tapered bar and the ground when making the hole in the ground. U.S. Pat. No. 7,658,240 discloses an improved approach to rapidly form a hole in the ground by driving and moving a probe. However, utilization of the approach of U.S. Pat. No. 7,658,240 brought an appreciation of its significant improvement over other approaches and the desirability of further improvement.
Thus, a need exists for methods and apparatus that can rapidly form a hole in the ground, which overcome the deficiencies of the prior approaches, and that allow easy placement of a post in the hole.